A Smithsonian museum is planning to display photographs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the wake of the U.S. atomic bombings in the closing days of World War II as part of a forthcoming exhibition.
"World War II in the Air," an exhibition covering developments in military aviation during the era, is expected to open in 2025 at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, a curator told Kyodo News earlier this month.
The plan is under way almost three decades after the museum was forced to scrap a proposal to display the fuselage of the Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima, alongside graphic photos and other historical materials on the damage caused by the two bombings.
At the time, the exhibit, planned for the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II in 1995, sparked a huge controversy in the United States over the historical context of the atomic bombings and drew protests from veterans' and other organizations.
The aircraft is now on display at the museum's annex in Virginia on the outskirts of the U.S. capital, but historical narratives about the decision to use the weapons remain delicate in the country.
In addition to photos of the devastated Japanese cities, the forthcoming exhibition is expected to include a "Little Boy-type bomb casing," said Jeremy Kinney, the museum's associate director for research and curatorial affairs.
But he added, "The museum does not currently plan to present photos or personal belongs of the (bomb) victims."
"This is not an atomic bomb exhibit," Kinney said, pointing out it will "examine how the wartime revolution in technology and tactics redefined the promise and peril of military aviation and will explore the dramatic changes to flight and America's role in world affairs."
"The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are part of that story," he said.
The museum, one of the Smithsonian Institution's facilities, houses the world's largest collection of aviation and space artifacts.
The section of the exhibition covering the world's first atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and then another three days later on Nagasaki, will be supported with "artifacts, images and other historical material from the museum's collection," he said.
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